Everyman’s Bible Commentary

The practical section is targeted to the average Christian who seeks more personal application from his reading of scripture. Also, the unbeliever will find things here to introduce him to the central message of the Bible, that being Jesus Christ and His redemptive work. The practical often leads to the devotional. Isn’t that usually the reason for our Bible reading? We want to get something out of it. The practical side develops our lives in the world and the devotional, our lives in God and His Son, Jesus Christ. In the practical we seek wisdom for living; in the devotional, spiritual wisdom for growth. The practical feeds mostly our physical and mental states; the devotional, our spiritual. One is impressed by a general ineptness among good people in developing a meaningful meditation from Bible reading. The great joy of Bible reading comes from this digesting of particular words and phrases, as, crudely, a cow does her cud. We keep in mind, also, that many Sunday school teachers, home study hosts, Bible fellowships and clubs can use help and encouragement. Those particularly who handle the word before others should properly equip themselves. Those were two intelligent, godly men walking the road to Emmaus, “but their eyes were held from recognizing Him.” (Luke 24:16) As Jesus did for them, we hope to “explain … the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27), however familiar they may be (as in Psalms 1 and 19), so that the “held” eyes of the heart may be opened and a fresh and blessed insight into the word of God received. Thus the words of scripture are important.There is a current tendency to slight words in favor of thought or message; but words are the foundation of thoughts, and thoughts, of messages. Thoughts and overall messages could not possibly exist without words. Words are primary; thus the study of words is primary to the thought or message we seek. What a unique blessing awaits us in the study of Old Testament poetry. Do we realize that this written poetry is probably the first of its kind in literary history? Even the Chinese culture, which boasts of its advanced antiquity, does not have extant poetry before the era of 770 B.C., some 250 years after David! The fact that David is among the first in this literary genre is astonishing in light of his background. Where did his poetry come from? It was not taught, nor was he able to fill his soul with the reading of it. A poet is created; he does not learn the art, though he may learn skills in the art. A poet has a reservoir of extraordinary deep feeling in his soul and a vivid vocabulary in his mind, which are not normally found in a calloused warrior or pragmatic empire builder as David was. No doubt David’s poetry originated in the sheepfold after a day of shepherding in the hot sun or on some solitary range, when the sheep, full from their morning grazing, lay down to rest and digest. Most likely he wrote Psalm 23 as a shepherd youth. Both it and Psalm 1, perhaps others, hint of an innocent, simple kind of poetry, unaffected by the cares and stresses of life. In later years, filled with the pressures of being a hunted exile or a threatened monarch, his poetry reflects the “uneasy head that wears the crown.” Albeit his depth of emotion consistently transcends that which would issue from royal decrees and judgments. We have to conclude, therefore, that the Holy Spirit was his teacher in poetic artistry and that the same Spirit set the pattern through David for later poetic expression, both Biblical and secular. The remarkable thing about David was that his life-long rule as a mighty king did not change what he had as a boy — an innocent, childlike, sensitive nature with deep feelings toward friend, foe, and especially God, toward right and wrong, toward justice and injustice. What an extraordinary man was David! What a wonderful saint! What a super poet! This psalm hangs two contrasting portraits on the wall of every soul. They capture my attention because they are portraits of the same face but have a different countenance. Strikingly, one face reflects a dark and insecure mood while the other glows with an inner sheen. Then I exclaim, “That’s me!” I note that the portraits have name tags: “Blessed” and “Wicked.” While I study the images, the lines of this psalm offer a running narrative. Clearly these words classify the only two kinds of individuals in mankind. The blessed man is made so afterward; the wicked is so naturally, as testified by the psalmist’s silence on how he got that way. Contrary to common thinking, the description is not of a good person becoming bad but of a bad person becoming good. The blessed man (1) has made a choice for his conduct (walks not…), determined his life direction (nor stands…), and revoked his former ways (nor sits …). In the gospel of Christ that determination is called faith (believing) in Jesus Christ as personal Savior (deliverer) from sin and the wicked life. We then receive a new life and power to walk not, but we must first be converted from the wicked state to one in which God develops our blessedness. What characterizes the blessed man cannot at all be said of the wicked: the wicked are not so. The wicked lives his life in complete disregard of and opposition to the law of the Lord, or the scripture; the blessed man meditates in His law of conduct day and night. He attends to it constantly. It is his delight to walk in it; and doing right is not burdensome, as the Old Testament saints so found it in keeping their law based on righteous works. Jesus Christ eliminated the burden and invites us: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30) The substance of life is a big concern. What is life all about? The blessed man brings forth fruit. The wicked is nothing but chaff--just a husk, a shell of what real life should be. He lacks real substance or purpose. Chaff is not useful for anything. The wind of time drives it away, first to the approaching summons of death and then to the awful destination of hell and everlasting condemnation, where he shall perish. On the other hand, the gospel assures “that whoever believes in Him [Christ] should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Because the blessed man brings forth fruit continually, his life blesses others. He doesn’t live for himself or his own pleasure. His fruitfulness is a blessing in its season, that is, on all occasions. The model for that tree planted by the streams of water is paradise’s “tree of life,” which is planted “on either side of the river…, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month, with its leaves for the healing of the nations.” (Revelation 22:2) So the psalmist tells us that the blessed man’s leaf also does not wither, a continuously green, fruit-bearing tree. Therefore his life shall prosper. This is not a kind of prosperity through success or wealth, but through helpfulness and blessing and love to others. The wicked person is dependent on outside support, which is given through other’s counsel, their lifestyles (the way of sinners), and their company (sits in the seat of scorners). (1) The blessed person, on the other hand, is sustained because he is firmly planted by the streams of living water (3), fitting what Jesus said: "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a spring of water springing up into eternal life." (John 4:14) May God give us the desire to know and experience the blessed life and to turn from the futile and fateful way of sinners. Then we can remove the wicked man’s portrait from the soul and destroy it with a victorious exclamation, “That’s no longer me!”